


Boredom

by Clarrisani



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 10:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6467431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clarrisani/pseuds/Clarrisani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Owen is bored.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boredom

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2009  Torchwood Australia Writing Challenge #1

"Yuck!  That's disgusting," said Tosh. 

"What?" Owen smirked, leaning back in his seat as he watched her. "You can't tell me you haven't thought about it." 

"I have better things to do than thinking about our colleagues having sex."

Owen's eyebrows rose slightly. "So thinking about Jack and Gwen-"

"Is wrong on many levels." Tosh returned her attention to her laptop, ignoring Owen's amused look as she went back to typing up her report. "And need I remind you that Gwen's engaged and Jack's with Ianto."

"Bet you think about them."

Tosh looked up. "Think about who?"

"Jack and Ianto." Owen leaned forward. "Or maybe Rhys and Gwen."

"I do not think about Rhys and Gwen."

"But you do think about Jack and Ianto."

"Why are you so focussed on everyone having sex?" Tosh asked, looking up at him and frowning. "It's not as if office romances are rare here.'

Owen shrugged, picking up a pen from where it sat on top of his own reports. He glanced around the room, the boardroom screen dancing in its pattern of the standard Torchwood screensaver. In the distance he could hear a Weevil call out and the far away sounds of the Hub itself. He glanced down at the paperwork, shuffling it slightly and frowning as Tosh's fingers began to tap once more at the keyboard, breaking the silence.

He looked up again, twirling the pen between two fingers and watching her. After a while a frown began to form on her features until she sat back, glaring at him.

He blinked innocently. "What?"

"Are you going to do your own report, or are you going to stare at me all day?"

Owen smiled sweetly at her. "Maybe I like staring at you."

"You're just looking for reasons not to do your report." Tosh straightened her glasses, looking back down at her computer as she went back to work. "Just remember Jack wants that report on his desk before four."

Owen shrugged it off. "I'm sure he won't mind if it's a little late."

"It's already late." Tosh's frown deepened. "He said if it was any later he'd feed you to Janet."

"Jack's all talk. Besides, Janet likes me." Owen sighed, looking back down as his report and managing to write a paragraph before his attention was again diverted, this time to his glass of water. He prodded it slightly, shifting it around the table and watching the water slosh around the sides. After a while he picked it up, downing most of it and making sure to slurp as he watched for a response from Tosh who was pointedly ignoring him.

Deciding her no fun, he returned his attention to the report. As he continued to write with one hand, he absently hooks a finger into the top of the glass with the other, spinning it around on one corner. He frowns as he tries to remember a detail, deciding to leave that bit blank until he can sneak a look at Gwen's report later. He looks up sharply as he feels the glass tip abruptly, the circles having become too wide. The glass hit the table with a click, the remaining water splashing out across the surface.

"Owen!"

"What?" He looks up at Tosh as he grabs his hanky from his pocket, wiping at the water. "It's not like I did it on purpose."

Tosh nodded toward the hanky. "I hope that was clean."

Owen shot her a look. "Do you want me to leave water on the table?"

"If it's a choice between water and your snot, yes."

"Okay, fine." Owen stuffed the handkerchief back into his pocket, shifting his report back from the water pool that had began to touch the edge of his papers, seeping into them. He shook them off, wiping at the access water and shifting slightly to a dry spot, feeling the eyes on him as he moved. He snatched up the pen and continued to write, hearing a small pleased sound from Tosh as she went back to her own report.

Something continued to niggle at the back of his mind as he wrote, and eventually he realised that his pen had frozen in one place. He glanced up quickly at Tosh again, narrowing his eyes as he watched her work. He knew that she knew he was watching her just from the faint tenseness to her jaw, but she was trying hard to pretend he wasn't there.

"See, I think you do like thinking about Jack and Ianto," he said, breaking the silence abruptly. "You've got footage of them on your computer."

Tosh made a small squeak as she looked up sharply, her cheeks flushing as she stared at him with wide eyes. "What?"

"You were watching it the other day," he said with a smirk. "Could see you from the hot house. You looked _very_ interested."

Tosh fidgeted in her seat, frowning as she stared at her computer for a second before looking back up at him sharply. "Why were you watching me?"

"No law to say I can't." Owen shrugged, smiling sweetly at her. "So... exactly how much footage did you have on there?"

Tosh narrowed her eyes at him. "Is that why you tried to hack into the main server? You were looking for the footage?"

Owen blinked. "Wha..."

"And in the process you somehow managed to lock up the system so that no one can get on for 48 hours during the week that all our monthly reports are due."

Owen scowled, fidgeting in his seat as tried to think of a good come-back. "Well... it should have an override in case something like this happens."

"It does." Tosh's jaw tightened. "But somehow you managed to lock that up too."

"Well you should have an override for the override."

"It shouldn't need one, Owen."

"Well it shouldn't lock up."

"It's designed to protect the main server from intrusion. If you don't have the proper access codes, it thinks you are an intruder and locks up." Tosh set her jaw. "Only Jack, Ianto and I have the access codes. You shouldn't have been anywhere near the server."

Owen set his pen down on the table. "You know, I don't see why Gwen and I can't have codes. I'd almost think you don't trust us."

Tosh eyebrows rose slightly. "If you had the codes you'd probably use them to go through our information for blackmail purposes or to delete your internet history, and Gwen would probably go through our files to find out everything about us to use against us at some stage."

"Oh, right." Owen nodded, narrowing his eyes. "Like Ianto does."

Tosh shot him a look and shook her head, returning her attention to her computer. "Ianto does not blackmail us."

"Not you maybe." Owen snorted, glaring down at his own report. "He likes you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"He's always pulling stuff out to use against me, Tosh." Owen shot her a look. "I swear he gets off on trying to one-up me all the time. That's when he's not getting off with Jack."

Tosh blinked, shaking her head. "Well maybe if you didn't bait him all the time he wouldn't."

Owen tried to look offended. "Bait him?"

"Yes, bait him. Which is exactly what you're doing." She looked back down at her computer and went back to work. "Gwen and I learnt a long time ago not to cross him, and even Jack knows better than to make him mad."

"Jack makes him mad just to get make up sex." Owen screwed up his face and scrawled another sentence on the page, swearing softly as he pressed down too hard on the pen and tore a small hole into the paper. He slammed the pen down on the table. "Why the hell do they have to do it in the Hub anyway? We work here. I really don't need to be checking every surface to make sure it’s clean."

Tosh rolled her eyes. "Like you and Suzie didn't do it in the Hub. Or Gwen for that matter."

"Well..." Owen shifted in his seat. "That's different."

"Not really."

Owen glared at her. "You're just jealous because you've never done it in the Hub."

"Haven't I?" Tosh gave him a small, sweet smile. "How you can you be sure?"

"Because that would require you to have a partner."

Tosh's smile widened. "Perhaps you're not the only one to have office romances."

"Yeah. Right." Owen scowled, looking down at his report again and struggling over another line before letting out a frustrated scowl, slamming a hand down on the top of the report. "Look, I can't do this. It's stupid. And it's wrecked anyway."

Tosh glanced up at him. "I'm sure if you had focused on it instead of obsessing with our colleagues sex lives..."

"Ha ha, very funny." Owen sighed, running a hand through his hair and shooting a glare to the side. "And you can stop laughing."

"Well perhaps if you hadn't locked up the system you could have completed it quicker." Ianto smiled sweetly at him as he dotted the end of his own report, shuffling the papers together. "And Jack wasn't lying about the threat."

Owen rolled his eyes at him. "He's not going to feed me to Janet."

"Are you sure?" Ianto stood, picking up the papers and smiling warmly at Tosh who returned it. As he turned to leave, he paused in the doorway. "Oh, and Owen, last night where you're sitting Jack and I..."

Owen threw himself out of his seat. "Bloody hell!"

Tosh laughed as Ianto threw her a wink and disappeared out the door.

**THE END**


End file.
